Former Hingham restaurant manager among those killed in blasts

A 29-year-old woman who managed a restaurant at Hingham’s Derby Street Shoppes was among those killed by a pair of bomb blasts near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday.

The Herald News, Fall River, MA

Writer

Posted Apr. 16, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Apr 16, 2013 at 4:18 PM

Posted Apr. 16, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Apr 16, 2013 at 4:18 PM

BOSTON

» Social News

A 29-year-old woman who had managed a restaurant in Hingham was among those killed by a pair of bomb blasts that ripped through crowds watching the Boston Marathon on Monday.

Krystle Marie Campbell, a Medford native who was living in Arlington, had served as the general manager of Jasper White’s Summer Shack in Hingham since April 2012, according to her online professional profile. Her family said Campbell was waiting for her friend’s boyfriend to cross the finish line when the bombs exploded in the crowd, killing her and two others, including an 8-year-old boy from Dorchester.

Campbell had worked most recently at a Summer Shack located in the Derby Street Shoppes that closed in January. Jasper White, the founder of the Summer Shack chain, said Tuesday that he had closed the Summer Shack restaurants in Boston and Cambridge for the evening out of respect for Campbell, who he said was “an integral part of our organization” and had worked there for nine years.

“Krystle touched my life, and the lives of all our employees with her constant smile and joyful personality,” he said in a statement. “She was beloved by all of us, and we will miss her deeply.”

In an interview with WCVB-TV on Tuesday, Campell’s mother, Patty Campbell, said she and her husband, William Campbell, were initially told by hospital officials that their daughter had survived Monday’s attack and that her friend, Karen Rand, was killed. But when they were allowed to see her, they realized the woman being treated was not their daughter.

Campbell told WCVB, a Wicked Local news partner, that her daughter loved animals and people, and regularly worked 16-hour days in the food service industry. She said she and her husband are still struggling to believe that her daughter was killed.

“This is just a waste,” she said.

William Campbell told the Associated Press that his daughter was “very caring, very loving person, and was daddy’s little girl.” He said the loss had devastated the family.

The flag in front of Medford City Hall was lowered to half-staff Tuesday afternoon.

“When you have somebody of that age die in such a horrific manner, it’s devastating to the community,” said Mayor Michael J. McGlynn.

The mayor said he offered his condolences and “whatever support we can give” to the family.

Campbell graduated from Medford High School in 2001 and later, UMass Boston. Her grandmother, Lillian Campbell of Somerville, said her granddaughter had just moved to Arlington.

Another victim of Monday’s attack has been identified as Martin Richard, an 8-year-old who was at the finish line watching the race with his family. Neighbors and friends rememberd him as a vivacious boy who loved to run, climb, and play sports like soccer, basketball and baseball.

Page 2 of 4 - Family friend Jack Cunningham spoke of how as a pint-sized preschooler, Martin had insisted on getting out of a stroller his mom was pushing during a 5K race in South Boston about five years ago.

But once she let him out to run with the rest of the family, Martin had other plans for the rainy race course.

“He was just having a ball, splashing in every puddle,” Cunningham said.

The victim’s father Bill Richard released a statement Tuesday afternoon thanking family, friends and strangers for their support following his son’s death Monday. Richard’s wife Denise and 6-year-old daughter Jane also suffered significant injuries in the blasts.

“My dear son Martin has died from injuries sustained in the attack on Boston,” it said. “My wife and daughter are both recovering from serious injuries. We thank our family and friends, those we know and those we have never met, for their thoughts and prayers. I ask that you continue to pray for my family as we remember Martin.”

Other neighbors and friends remembered Martin as a vivacious boy who loved to run, climb, and play sports including soccer, basketball and baseball.

The Richard family were watching Monday’s race, and had gone to get ice cream before returning to the area near the finish line before the blasts.

“They were looking in the crowd as the runners were coming to see if they could identify some of their friends when the bomb hit,” said Congressman Stephen Lynch, a friend of the family for 25 years.

He said they are a strong family and are doing better than expected, while rallying around the 6-year-old girl.

Lynch said the family was attempting to get over the race barriers and into the street when the second blast occurred, killing Martin. Bill Richard and the older brother, Henry, were not seriously injured, but doctors did remove ball bearings from Bill Richard’s leg, Lynch said.

“Ball bearings are meant as anti-personnel munitions,” he said. “They were trying to cause carnage here.”

On Tuesday morning, candles burned on the stoop of the family’s single-family home in the city’s Dorchester section, and “peace” was written in chalk on the front walkway. A child’s bicycle helmet lay overturned on the front lawn.

“What a gift. To know him was to love him,” longtime friend Judy Tuttle said of Martin, who remembered recently sitting at the dining room table having tea with Denise Richard while the boy did his homework. “He had that million-dollar smile and you never knew what was going to come out of him. Denise is the most spectacular mother that you’ve ever met and Bill is a pillar of the community. It doesn’t get any better than these people.”

“I can just remember his mother calling him, ’Martin!’ if he was doing something wrong,” she said. “Just a vivacious little kid.”

Delorey had a photo showing Martin dressed as the character Woody from the Toy Story films, wearing a cowboy hat, a sheriff’s badge, jeans and a big smile. His sister, Jane, was at his right dressed as Woody’s friend, Jesse. Their older brother, Henry, was to their left, dressed as Harry Potter.

The children’s father, Bill, is a leader in a local community group, and an avid runner and bicyclist.

Denise Richard works as a librarian at the Neighborhood House Charter School, where Martin was a third-grader and Jane attends first grade.

Counselors were being made available Tuesday to staff and students, according to school spokeswoman Bodi Luse, who said the whole community was devastated.

“I just can’t get a handle on it,” Cunningham said of the boy’s death. “In an instant, life changes.”

The third person killed in the Boston Marathon bombings was a Chinese graduate student at Boston University originally from China’s northeastern city of Shenyang, a state-run Chinese newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Shenyang Evening News said on its official Twitter-like microblog account that the victim’s name is Lu Lingzi. An editor at the newspaper said that Lu’s father confirmed his daughter’s death when reporters visited the family home. The editor declined to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to foreign media.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry and Consulate General in New York are not releasing the victim’s name at the request of the family. But on Tuesday, Boston media quoted a Chinese Consulate General official as saying Chinese national Lu Lingzi was missing in the wake of Monday’s bombings that killed three and wounded more than 170 people.

In the Chinese-language world of social media, people have been sharing their condolences on what is believed to be Lu’s microblogging account hosted by Sina Weibo, which was last updated Monday with a breakfast photo. By early Wednesday afternoon, more than 14,000 comments were left on the page.

Friends contacted through Sina Weibo have largely declined to speak to media about Lu, saying they were adhering to the wishes of Lu’s family.

Lu graduated from a Shenyang high school and studied international trade at Beijing Institute of Technology before she went to the United States to study statistics as a graduate student at Boston University, according to media reports, Lu’s friends and her own Facebook page.